Yogyakarta: Java's ancient city of culture

Yogyakarta is close to Java's greatest ancient sites like Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple

(Image credit: Filippo Maria Bianchi / Getty Images)

published 9 February 2025

Think of Java, and chances are that the megacity of Jakarta – the capital of Indonesia – will spring to mind. But for those interested in the island's traditional culture, a smaller city beckons, said Scott Mowbray in The New York Times.

Set in jungled hills 250 miles east of Jakarta, Yogyakarta is close to Java's greatest ancient sites – Borobudur (the world's largest Buddhist temple), and Prambanan (a Hindu temple complex), both dating from the 9th century. But the city is now "a place of intellectual and cultural ferment", with several universities and a vibrant contemporary art scene. And nowhere are Java's "intricate" classical arts – including gamelan music, puppetry and dance – still so lovingly practised.

On arrival, Yogyakarta may seem much like any other hectic Indonesian city, with its "swarms" of scooters and countless warungs, or street food stalls. But you'll notice a "slower, more communal" rhythm in its kampongs, which are "villages within the city" – clusters of homes set amid quiet, winding streets decked with "songbirds in delicate cages, walls and doors of lovely hues, and countless potted plants". And in the heart of it all is the sultan's palace, the Kraton, with its many 18th-century buildings set in leafy grounds. Around the Kraton are other sites – a mosque, bath houses, gardens – all built according to a unique symbolic scheme – "a syncretic mix of animist, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim beliefs that put Yogya at the centre of the universe". Known as the Cosmological Axis, this area was designated last year as a Unesco World Heritage site.